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Topic: Interpretation (Read 477 times)

I'm involved in a debate with a Young Earth Christian. I'm trying to point out that the bible is not a science book; it cannot be taken literally. I've pointed out that in;Genesis 2:17 - "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam and Eve did not die in the day, but died years after. Christians say it means 'Spiritually' die.Isaiah 40:22 - "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.." - 'Circle' is not a sphere. God did not say the earth was spherical, he said 'circular'.

With many of these verses, Christians say they can 'interpret' the bible, in my view ignoring Revelations 22:18 about not changing one word of the Bible.

So, I've ended up with putting this scenario to the Christian;

Christian is at the Pearly Gates. God appears and asks some questions;"HOW DID I DESCRIBE THE EARTH IN ISAIAH 40:22?WHAT IS A CIRCLE?DID I ADD THE WORD 'SPIRITUALLY' TO GENESIS 2:17?"

I don't think you get anywhere playing word games with them. They are too well indoctrinated to counter all the weak points.

Go with all the goodies:

God created the sun on day 4, and there is water above the sun.God got scared by some people who built a brick towerRainbows didn't exist prior to God's promiseNoah could curse Ham, because he did Satanic Voodoo

Job wanted to go to sheol, to escape God, because hell hadn't been invented when they wrote Job. When they did invent hell, in 1 Enoch, they deleted the book, because it was crap that said the sun and winds came out of a box.

Like them! Was the brick tower the Babel story? I've not used that one yet as far as god being scared of the construction, but I did point out the nonsense of the languages; i.e. European languages are geographically close, so share much structure, for example English can be traced by to a form of German / Dutch. French to Latin etc, and all European languages influencing each other.What they don't share is a commonality with Japanese, as the languages evolved separately.

This argument got nowhere with a Young Earther; - "They were all totally separate when god separated them, but over the years people began joining them together again."

[3] And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.[4] And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.[5] And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.[6] And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.[7] Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

Their game plan was to reach heaven, where the Gods(plural) lived. Yahweh came down to look, and found that the insects represented a threat to the Gods, so to stop them invading heaven, all the gods went down and acted as a plague upon man.

In verse 7, where it says "Go to" in the KJV text, the Hebrew says "grant attention you", as Yahweh calls to the audience, apparently... unless he is calling to the other Gods. The humans do it, too, in verse 4, so they are talking to the audience as well. Maybe they are talking to themselves, and God talks to himself as well. In verse 3, they are definitely talking to each other, so I guess if the Bible did not want us to think that Gods were plural, they shouldn't have used "us" in verse 7.